Huffy Flounce

That's very mature of you.

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt and figured you meant 20th Century Fox.

You've known me long enough to know not to give me the benefit of the doubt.

Well, here we go....

After the NFL postgame that is...

I'll have more to say later, for now I'll give the first episode a solid 3 out of 4, it was a good continuation, if a bit rushed. Basically cramming 2-3 episodes worth of material into one. I still don't see how Mulder could so easily renounce his belief in an alien conspiracy with everything he has seen with his own eyes, but hopefully there will be more to come on that front.

Actually, now that I've had time to think about it, I may have too forgiving; there are actually quite a few things wrong with this episode.

SPOILERS ahead.




One thing that really took me out of the first episode is how shocked Mulder is about his realization that the government has been behind all of the so-called alien abductions all along. Isn't this ground that's been well covered by the show already? Isn't this what the Syndicate was basically doing? Yeah, there's a bit of a new twist to the story, but at its core it's something that they've known since Season 6 or 7.

Oh yeah, and the X-Files have magically been reopened by the end of the episode. Why? Because it's convenient. Oh, and guess what: Smoking Man is alive, despite being blown up at the end of Season 9.

That's not the real Smoking Man. That's an alien moving Smoking Man's dead husk around with its alien brain powers.

I quit 27 days ago.

You should have quit two weeks before that.

I wish I had.

I forgot to say Spoiler Alert, my bad.



Anyhoo, the problem isn't the retconning of the alien abduction aspect of the series.

The problem is that they would have us jettison the entire alien colonization agenda altogether, as it had been steadily built up over six or seven seasons. Which simply must be a red herring on their part, because it requires us to ignore the meetings in which the Syndicate clearly mentioned colonization by name and their role in it. Unless of course, they too were lied to over several decades, which seems like quite a stretch. Or perhaps only one or two members at the top were in on the con, ie. Cig Man.

Not to mention the insignificant matter of the city-sized alien spaceship in Antarctica using mutated Purity Black Oil to incubate thousands of nasty alien parasites which would later morph into the humble Greys that we have come to know and love. Unless this too was simply all gov, no ET involvement. I believe we never established that Purity was in fact, extraterrestrial in origin. What if the Black Oil was never alien at all? What if it turns out it was simply an Earthly virus with certain aggressive, sentient properties that could be exploited for the Project, along with the alien DNA gathered at Roswell?

I am willing to accept a revised XF conspiracy theory that the entire UFO phenomenon, mythology, or whatever(with the exception of Roswell), is simply a vast smokescreen to cover up or misdirect abuses by the powerful. It is more plausible to me personally than an attempted alien conquest of the Earth, which has always seemed a tad wasteful and regressive to my Canadian sensibilities. I actually thought it would have been a nice touch for the series to end with the revelation that the aliens intentions were never hostile at all--but rather, the opposite. Would have been a nice twist ending to the series, and maybe that's what Chris Carter is aiming for.

For that to work, however, you have to painstakingly go through the entire mytharc from beginning to end, and make sure you connect everything. Otherwise you run the risk of ruining canon, and I think we've all had quite enough of that.

And oh yeah, Smoking Man. Better be a damn good reason behind that.

Space Tycoon wrote:I actually thought it would have been a nice touch for the series to end with the revelation that the aliens intentions were never hostile at all--but rather, the opposite.

SPOILER: Ender's Game did it!

CE3K had a similar ending. Throughout the movie there are a number of frightening, intimidating encounters with alien entities, but turns that completely around by the final act.

On the other hand, episode 2, Founder's Mutation, is more of a return to form. Although technically a standalone, there are definite references to the mytharc and William specifically. Moments of genuine pathos, creepiness and dry humour that reminded me of old times.

Now that I've been bonging Breaking Bad, also by Vince Gilligan, and getting back into series like Walking Dead and House of Cards, I can't help but wish the new X-Files were liberated from the restraints of network television.

I'm not necessarily saying pervasive hard-R rated content would make everything wonderful, but at least they would be free to explore things in a way they couldn't before.

I noticed that the IMDB page for the revival series have been merged with that of the original. I don't think I approve.

I feel like the third episode was full of Easter eggs I didn't catch. One that I did catch was the tombstone in the graveyard scene. It bears the name of the deceased Kim Manners, who directed lots of X-Files episodes over the years.

I confess, I'm only now watching the 3rd episode. Work and family and so on.

Bottom line, there is something about it that.......well...........I don't know.

Give me a moment.

Okay Mulder, we get it. You now use a smartphone that you don't fully understand.

Speaking as a fellow middle aged type dude... I can relate.

"This is how I like my Mulder."

Good line.

On sober second watching, it was actually pretty clever. Not quite Jose Chung or Bad Blood clever, but cute in it's way.

So last week's episode was well-meaning and well-intentioned, but I have to say it wasn't blowing my skirt up. I wonder if I'm the only one here watching? I have a feeling Mal might have checked out already.

I'm just about to watch the last one before the finale. Apparently it involves Islamic terorrism, which in true XF fashion will no doubt be the result of some MK Ultra type mind control experiment.

I've read through some IMDB comments and they are not kind. Surprising, I know.

Mal can't check out. He's a lifer.

I haven't checked out - still watching every week. The episode with Trashman is the only one this season where I felt that they were back to true form.

Last night's episode was pretty rough in parts, but I've always felt that The X-Files was kind of heavy-handed when it waxed philosophical. Mulder on shrooms was funny at first and sort of reminiscent of that moment from "Bad Blood" when he gets drugged, but it got a bit too cutesy as it went on. The portrayal of Muslims was relatively simplistic despite their obvious attempt to show that "they're not all bad." That didn't really help offset the fact that most Muslims shown in the episode were faceless terrorists trying to blow us all up.